Things not about the State of the Union

School shootings since Sandy Hook.

What did Congress just do to the IRS?

More crude spilled  in 2013 Than Previous Four Decades Combined... or oil spill?  What oil spill?

Exploding neighborhood novas

Petition to keep China from processing our chickens.  (via Steve Bates)

Free art books from the Getty Museum.  In fact, free education!

Here is a cat playing a theremin.

This is what we've been telling you all along

But did you listen? NoooOOOOooOOOOooo.

While officials claim most of the oil from America's worst-ever spill has disappeared, fishermen hired by BP are still finding tar balls—and being instructed to hide their discoveries.

Two weeks ago, as federal officials prepared to declare that some three-quarters of the estimated 5 million barrels of oil released into the Gulf over three months had disappeared, Mark Williams, a fishing boat captain hired by BP to help with the spill cleanup, encountered tar balls as large as three inches wide floating off the Florida coast

Reporting his findings to his supervisor, a private consulting company hired by BP, the reply, according to his logbook came back: "Told—no reporting of oil or tar balls anymore. Don't put on report. We're here for boom removal only," referring to the miles of yellow and orange containment barriers placed throughout the Gulf.

[snip]

The miraculous disappearance of the oil and the pending transfer of $20 billion to Ken Feinberg, who is independently overseeing the claims fund, have resulted in the oil giant cutting back its response operations. With a recent halving of the Vessels of Opportunity program, which hired fallow charter and commercial fishing boats, captains and deckhands are now less reticent to describe their experiences.

Link via Bryan of Why Now?

For those idiots who are now saying the oil is gone in the Gulf

Do you think we're stupid?

Incoming BP CEO: Time for 'scaleback' in cleanup

Just because we can't see it on the shores doesn't mean it isn't there.

You can't pour MILLIONS and MILLIONS of gallons of poisonous crude and MILLIONS and MILLIONS of horribly toxic dispersant into a sea and have it just 'disappear'. BP thinks if it can get the media to start talking about the amazing fact that the oil seems to be gone, we will forget about the disaster? Demand less money from them? Decide nature will clean it all up? Decide it wasn't that big of a mess?

Are you fucking kidding me?

The Gulf is ruined.

Not in anyone's lifetime today will the Gulf return to what it was before this 'spill'. Gulf sea creatures will have been made extinct. The water has been poisoned. The surviving fish and crustaceans are inedible. People are out of work. Health problems are obvious. Beach real estate prices are plummeting.

A seemingly feel-good story showed up this week on the nation's front pages and newscasts: The oil that befouled the Gulf of Mexico for 86 days is vanishing from the surface, leaving workers with little to clean.

But scientists warn the oil's ecological impacts are shifting, not ebbing, thanks to massive volumes of dispersants that have kept the crude beneath the waves.

"This is a management decision, to use dispersants," College of William and Mary marine science professor Robert Diaz said yesterday. "It doesn't make the oil go away, it just puts it from one part of the ecosystem to another."

That dispersed oil now hovers, diluted in the water column, posing a challenge for scientists to track and measure the subsea plumes. Mapping the long-term effects of the nearly 2 million gallons of dispersant used by BP PLC may well be equally difficult, given the array of unanswered questions that surround the products' rapid breakdown of oil droplets and their chronic toxicity.

In other words, while dispersants may have helped spare the Gulf's birds, the chemicals are likely shifting dangers to other species lower in the food chain. The National Research Council described dispersant use in 2005 as "a conscious decision" to direct hydrocarbons to one part of the marine ecosystem, "decreasing the risk to water surface and shoreline habitats while increasing the potential risk to organisms in the water column and on the seafloor."

Update: 7/31: McClatchy gets it right: When will oil spill be cleaned up? Maybe never

Update: Firedoglake.

Update: Nasa photo of Gulf on July 24th.

More of why we need to trust BP.....

BP is trying to buy off scientists

“We’re all employees of the state of Mississippi, and none of us really felt comfortable about testifying on the other side -- even if what we said was scientifically accurate,” Griffit says.

News of BP’s efforts to secure the consulting services of university faculty spread rapidly over the weekend, following a report in the Press-Register of Mobile, Ala., that provided details from contracts being offered to scientists. The newspaper said it obtained a copy of such a contract, noting that the agreement restricted consultants from discussing or publishing their research for at least the next three years.

At a time when many have already accused BP of low-balling or playing down the extent of the oil spill’s impact, many denounced the notion of professors gathering potentially damaging data for the company and letting BP sit on it for years.

“The idea that some scientists are willing to be bought off has caused quite a stir, and I guess the other thing is people don’t think too highly of BP trying to do that,” says Bob Shipp, head of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama.

The debate surrounding professors working for BP is not dissimilar from concerns often raised about professors conducting paid drug research for pharmaceutical companies. The fact that BP is pursuing faculty members who work sometimes within eyeshot of the spill's impact, however, appears to have given the conversations additional intensity.

BP pumped in unusual chemicals before rig explosion:

A contractor working on the Deepwater Horizon when it exploded testified yesterday that the day before the explosion, BP had pumped an unusual chemical mixture into the well -- a mixture that later rained down on the rig like "snot."

Leo Lindner, a drilling fluid specialist for M-I Swaco, told the panel investigating the causes of the explosion that BP decided to mix two chemicals the company had a surplus of -- two chemicals that aren't usually mixed -- and pump them into the well to flush out the drilling mud.

"It's not something we've ever done before," he said.

Lindner said BP wanted to use 400 barrels of the mixture, more than twice the amount of fluid usually used, because the company had hundreds of barrels of the chemicals and wanted to get rid of them.

And BP badly photoshopping the 'control center'.

The Gulf of Mexico

Now solidifying thanks to BP!

Do they mean our gas guzzling cars?

World's Largest Dinosaur Graveyard Linked to Mass Death.

Not yet. But soon.

Big Oil panics....

US oil demand in the first half of this year dropped by an average of 800,000 barrels per day, the biggest fall in 26 years.

The center cannot hold

Jobs?

WASHINGTON - The nation's unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in May — the biggest monthly rise since 1986 — as nervous employers cut 49,000 jobs.

The latest snapshot of business conditions showed a deeply troubled economy, with dwindling job opportunities in a time of continuing hardship in the housing, credit and financial sectors.

"It was ugly," said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research.

With employers worried about a sharp slowdown and their own prospects, they clamped down on hiring in May, said Friday's report from the Labor Department. The unemployment rate soared from 5 percent in April to 5.5 percent in May. That was the biggest one-month jump in the rate since February 1986. The increase left the jobless rate at its highest since October 2004.

Financial institutions?

Federal regulators warned Thursday that banking-industry turmoil would continue as financial institutions come to terms with piles of bad loans they made to finance the construction of homes and condominiums.

Until now, most of the damage to banks from the housing crisis has come from homeowners defaulting on their mortgages. But amid a dismal spring sales season for new homes, loans to home and condo builders are looking increasingly shaky. Banks have begun to dump them at what will likely be steep discounts, setting the stage for billions of dollars in fresh losses.

"As long as the housing market is on a downward path, as long as those prices continue to fall, I think there's a risk that the losses could continue to mount on a variety of loans," Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn told the Senate Banking Committee Thursday.

And:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Future U.S. bank failures linked to the downturn in the real estate market may include "institutions of greater size" than in the recent past, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair said on Thursday.

In testimony prepared for a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the state of the banking industry, Bair said an increasing number of problem banks face high exposure to commercial real estate and construction lending.

"There is also the possibility that future failures could include institutions of greater size than we have seen in the recent past," Bair said. "Uncertainties in today's economic environment continue to pose significant challenges for the banking industry, households, and bank regulators."

The FDIC, which has about $52.8 billion in its deposit insurance fund, has launched a review of its risk-assessment rates for larger banks to determine if they reflect current conditions, she said.

Oil?: (my bold)

NEW YORK - Oil prices shot up nearly $7 a barrel Friday, extending big gains from the previous day and racing toward an all-time high after a Morgan Stanley analyst predicted prices could hit $150 by the Fourth of July.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery jumped $6.27 to $134.06 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier, the contract rose as high as $134.68.

Friday's surge builds on a $5.49 gain Thursday, which was the biggest single-day price increase in the history of the Nymex crude contract. That spike came as the dollar fell in response to comments by the European Central Bank suggesting the bank could raise interest rates.

Prices pushed sharply higher Friday after Morgan Stanley analyst Ole Slorer said he expected strong demand in Asia that could drive prices to $150 by July 4.

Consumer confidence?:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. consumers are socking more money into savings, as fears of a weakening economy may be making them reluctant to spend their tax rebate checks, according to analysts who say that may mean the economy faces a prolonged period of slower growth.

In fact, consumers have been slowly rebuilding savings since hitting a low point in November 2007, when they drew down savings in order to keep spending. Since November's negative 0.1
percent savings rate, it has slowly climbed to reach 0.7 percent of disposable income in April.

[snip]

As of last Friday, the U.S. Treasury had mailed out tax rebate checks of up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples, worth a total of $50.041 billion. The rebates are part of a $152 billion stimulus program signed into law in February by President George W. Bush aimed at giving the flagging economy a quick lift.

CONSUMERS JITTERY

Economists, however, think much of the money will be directed by jittery consumers toward reducing existing debts, instead of more spending on goods and services.

"If people are looking ahead to next winter and thinking how much it is going to take to fill up the heating oil tank ... it is not going to help the economy in the short run," said Gary Thayer, senior economist for Wachovia Securities.

There is evidence people are shopping less. Last week's personal income report showed that spending rose a meager 0.2 percent in April after a 0.4 percent gain in March.

And a Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers data showed consumer confidence in May dropped to its lowest level in 28 years, a signal that consumers are not about to open their wallets easily.

Bush's legacy. We didn't go shopping when he told us to.

It's hard to make yourself heard

When they're rolling around on top of the mountain of dollar bills, huh, Georgie?

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabian leaders made clear Friday they see no reason to increase oil production until their customers demand it, apparently rebuffing President Bush amid soaring U.S. gasoline prices.

During Bush's second personal appeal this year to King Abdullah, Saudi officials stuck to their position that they are already meeting demand, the president's national security adviser told reporters.

"What they're saying to us is ... Saudi Arabia does not have customers that are making requests for oil that they are not able to satisfy," Stephen Hadley said on a day when oil prices topped $127 a barrel, a record high.

The Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, said there was no need to increase production now. "Supply and demand are in balance today," he told a news conference. "How much does Saudi Arabia need to do to satisfy people who are questioning our oil practices and policies?"

I don't think you need a translator to help you understand what was just said, Georgie. What's Saudi for 'hell, no'?

Fat lot of good your kissing and hand-holding did.



Or maybe ... that request was for the benefit of the Merkin folks and you really are happy with the state of things?



It all makes sense now...

Update 5/17: Distributorcap of Distributorcap NY reminds me that the Saudis agreed to a small increase. But Bush tells us we still need to drill in Anwar and not to get our hopes up:

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt (AP) -- President Bush said Saturday that the Saudis' modest increase in oil production "doesn't solve our problem," and that the United States must act itself to help bring down soaring gas prices.

"We've got to do more at home," the president said on the lush lawn of a resort overlooking the Red Sea in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt.

Speaking after a private meeting with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, he mentioned moves that have long been part of his agenda but stymied in Congress, such as developing alternate fuels, improving conservation and expanding domestic exploration.

Bush said he told Saudi King Abdullah during talks Friday that the kingdom should be concerned that high energy prices are hurting some of its biggest customers, including the United States.

He asked Abdullah for an injection of oil supply to help ease the pain. "High energy prices are going to cause countries like mine to accelerate our move to alternative energy," he said he told the king.

But Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said Friday it had decided a week before Bush's visit to raise production by 300,000 barrels a day to 9.45 million barrels a day and didn't see any need to do more. Energy analysts called the boost a token -- it represents just 3 percent of the total -- and it was seen as a rebuff, if a gentle one, of Bush by Abdullah.

One way we are working right now to control our energy needs, Georgie, is to get a Democratic candidate into office while we get you and Dick Cheney OUT of office.

Americans get a reminder of President Bush’s failed energy policies every time they gas up their cars. The average gallon of regular gas cost only $1.44 when Bush took office on January 20, 2001, and diesel cost just $1.53 per gallon. Yet today, gasoline and diesel fuel prices are at all-time highs, with gas prices at $3.60 per gallon and diesel prices at $4.17 per gallon.

Update 5/18: Speaking of appeasers, Watertiger of Dependable Renegade found this appropriate cartoon:

Barrel of crude pushes past $120

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude futures climbed to uncharted territory in New York Monday as concerns about supply disruptions in Nigeria and weakness in the U.S. dollar lifted prices past $120 a barrel in electronic trading.

Crude oil for June delivery climbed as high as $120.21 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract was last up $3.43, or 3%, at $119.75 after peaking at $120 in regular trading.

Leanan of The Oil Drum has an excellent list of the present day attitudes, effects, and future consequences.

crossposted at American Street

$115

New York, NY (AHN) - Oil hit another record high on Thursday, with light sweet crude for May delivery hovering at $115.54 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

But oil prices retreated back to $114.76 per barrel during the morning, after it reached a record high of $115.45 overnight.

The report released by The Energy Information Administration indicated that the crude inventories fell by 2.3 million barrels, while gasoline inventories declined by 5.5 million barrels last week.

Exactly why is crude over 100 dollars a barrel?

One word: Speculators.

Located at a key intersection in the North American pipeline system, Cushing is home to the largest oil storage facility in the United States. Oil traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange literally changes owners here in Cushing. If the tanks are full, prices sink. But if levels in these tanks fall, prices rise. A rule of thumb for traders: Supply and demand control the market.

Normally, at any rate. But in recent months the conventional wisdom has flip-flopped. Within a year the price of a barrel of crude has doubled, from $50 to last week's high of $100. Nothing seems impossible now. Some analysts see prices rising to between $120 and $150, which would have dramatic consequences for the world economy.

Similarly spectacular price developments have only occurred four times in the last few decades: in 1973, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo for the first time; in 1979, as a consequence of the Iranian revolution; a year later, when Iraq invaded Iran; and in 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Which leads to one the most provocative questions being asked about the world economy today: Why are oil prices soaring again?

It's All Speculation

There are plenty of answers. Some hold the crisis in the Middle East and constantly growing demand in China responsible. Others blame producing countries for keeping the oil spigot half-closed But none of it's very convincing. "Supply and demand cannot explain the high prices," says Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co., a leading commodities analyst. Like many in his profession, Gheit believes financial investors are driving up prices. He's reminded of the Internet bubble around the turn of the millennium. According to Gheit, oil is also seeing "excessive speculation" at the moment.

OPEC arrives at the same conclusion. "The fundamentals are right," says OPEC President Mohammed al-Hamli. In fact, the cartel has expected excess supply on markets since early February -- a result of the American economic crisis.

[snip]

Once upon a time, all that counted in the oil business was production volume and consumption in the industrialized nations. Those days are gone. Oil is now part of every well-structured portfolio -- as was the case, until recently, with those abstract securities meant to enable the investor to secure a slice of the American real-estate boom.

[snip]

Gheit has been in the business for 30 years. He worked at Mobil Oil and JP Morgan before moving to Oppenheimer. He remembers oil prices of $9 a barrel. In the hearings before the US Congress, he served as a star witness of sorts, attesting to the madness of the speculators. "The traders use every excuse in the book to drive up prices," he says, "it's pure hysteria." On some mornings, when he arrives at his office in Manhattan, London traders have driven up prices by $4 a barrel overnight, perhaps because a pipeline burst somewhere in the world. "I have a degree in engineering," says Gheit. "This isn't heart surgery. It's a plumber's job, child's play." The damaged pipeline was probably repaired even before Gheit found out about it -- but after the traders made their profits.

The question is, how long can these galloping prices continue without doing permanent damage to the US and world economies? Rising prices for gasoline, heating oil and airline tickets will increase inflationary pressures and stifle demand in the short to medium term.

"In the end it's a straw that breaks the camel's back," says Gheit, a native Egyptian. Or it's like a weightlifter hefting weights, he says, until someone places a pencil on top and he crashes to the ground.

"This is a bubble," he insists, "and it will burst."

I guess most corporations realize the Bush era is finally coming to an end, accountability will come back in fashion, restraint and oversight will be written into law, and they are trying to wring out of the consumers the last penny they can before it all comes crashing down.

Solid as in $100 a barrel of crude?

“Late payments on a cluster of consumer loans, including those for autos, home improvement and certain home equity loans, climbed in the summer to their highest point since the country’s last recession in 2001.” Bush’s response? “This economy of ours is on a solid foundation,” the president said.

A shot across the bow of the proud ship SSQuagmire

And the captain is pouting in his cabin....

The Iranian government reportedly is refusing U.S. dollars as payment for its oil, calling it an "unreliable currency."

Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari was quoted as saying Saturday that because "the dollar is no longer a reliable currency," his country would no longer accept it in oil sales, RIA Novosti reported.

"In line with a policy of selling crude oil in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, the sale of our country's oil in U.S. dollars has been completely eliminated," Nozari reportedly said.

The monetary move comes after Iranian officials proposed excluding U.S. dollars from oil sales at an Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries summit in November.

China's official Xinhua news agency said Iran's opposition of the U.S. dollar appears to be a response to growing pressure from the United States regarding the Middle Eastern country's controversial nuclear program.

Time to start digging the bunker...

As crude prices rise, so will everything else:

Blame it on crude oil. The rocketing price of crude oil is not only sharply hiking the costs of fueling the car and heating the home, but is bidding up prices on the raw materials that go into goods from produce to perfume.

At the same time, the push to develop ethanol as an alternative fuel through corn and similar products is inflating the cost of feed for cows, pigs and other farm animals - and that also increases the prices consumers pay.

"Oil affects everything from top to bottom," said Phil Flynn, energy analyst at Alaron Trading. "Most people wear crude oil every day."

And (via Gandhixmas at Pygalgia) this cheerful article:

America is finished, washed up, kaput. Foreign investors and central banks around the world have lost confidence in US markets and are headed for the exits. The dollar is sinking, the country is insolvent, and its leaders are barking mad. That’s bad for business. Investors are voting with their feet. They’ve had enough. Capital is flowing to China and the Far East in a torrent. It’s "sayonara" Manhattan and “Hello” Tiananmen Square.

Want some advice? Learn Mandarin.

The dollar fell another 2% last night, gold soared to $840 per ounce, oil topped $98 per barrel, General motors reported a $39 billion loss after the market closed on Tuesday, the real estate market continued its downward slide, and the major investment banks are marching in lock-step towards bankruptcy.

The news is all bad. The nation’s economic foundation is in shambles. US credibility is shot. Bush and Greenspan have put us on the road to ruin. Now their work is done. We’re flat broke.

The catalogue of fiscal ailments now facing the country is too long to list. We’d need a ledger the size of a small encyclopedia. There’s been a stampede away from the dollar even though it’s already lost over 60% of its value since Bush took office and even though central banks around the world will lose their shirts if it collapses. They don’t care. They’re getting out while they can.

Chris in Paris at AmericaBlog notes that oil has risen 41% in this last year alone.

Bryan of Why Now? quotes the AP about the Democrats of the House trying to help the middle-income taxpayers:

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats on Friday pushed through an $80 billion bill to block the spread of a dreaded tax on middle-income people. The White House and Republicans, protesting tax increases in the bill affecting mainly investment fund managers, maintained that it would never become law.

The 216-193 vote to ”patch” the alternative minimum tax for a year sends the issue to the Senate, where its prospects are at best uncertain. Not one House Republican voted for it.

What is certain is that if Congress and the White House do not reach a compromise by the end of the year, anywhere from 21 million to 25 million middle-income taxpayers will be hit by the AMT, costing them as much as $2,000 in extra taxes.

Bryan points out why the Republicans don't want to help this bill:

The “tax increases” are the closing of a loophole that allows fund managers to declare their income as capital gains, which have a 15% rate, rather than wages which would probably be at a 35% rate. This change only affects thousands of overpaid Wall Street types, and everyone with two brain cells realizes that this is a loophole, not an intended outcome. The Repubs want the cuts, they just don’t want to pay for them which is why the deficits mounted when they controlled Congress. Borrow and spend - it’s the Repub mantra.

Start storing up cans of beans and bags of rice, guys. Start raising rabbits in the backyard. I think this would qualify as 'living in interesting times...'

Nearing $100 a barrel

SINGAPORE -- The price of oil rose to a new record above US$96 a barrel on Thursday after a surprise drop in US crude stockpiles raised concerns about supplies for the coming winter demand.

A further weakening of the US dollar as a result of the Federal Reserve’s move to cut interest rates by a quarter point and data showing strong US economic growth also contributed to the oil price spike.

Analysts said they didn’t see anything standing in the way of a run to US$100 per barrel after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) continued to resist calls for more oil production. OPEC said the roaring market was beyond its control, with the cartel blaming speculation and politics for the surge in price.

Here we go....